Olympic Festival's Success May Cause Its Demise

Maybe its cost, both in real dollars and psychic energy of the United States Olympic Committee staff, no longer provides the desired return.

Maybe it is a victim of its own success, having grown too big to stage on even a semiannual basis.

That seemed to be the message when USOC officials announced last week that the 1997 Festival had been canceled and the 1999 Festival might take on an entirely different form than the 14 that have preceeded it.

It was only a few months ago the USOC decided not to have a Festival in each of the three years between the Summer Olympics. Won't the next move likely be the last?

If the Festival dies or is transformed into an elite competition with foreign athletes (sort of a mini-Goodwill Games, which is a mini-Olympics; how many minis does it take before something ceases to exist?), it will seem like losing an old friend.

The Olympic Festival has been the most media-friendly event in sports.

In the low-key Festival atmosphere, athletes are so willing to share their time with reporters that it always seemed a reporter could ask an athlete for a midnight interview atop a hotel rooftop, and the athlete would come with chairs, lights and soft drinks.

That attitude pervaded everyone who appeared at the Festival--from Olympic gold medalists to 11-year-old figure skaters. It made something special of the seven Festivals this reporter covered. The only regret is not being present at either the creation or this year's Oly Fest which will be seen as something of an ending,

The Festival has always seemed like sport for sport's sake, even on those occasions when stakes were high. Many of the individual sports federations used the Festival as a pre-selection competition for Olympic teams.

The Olympic Festival also became more than a sporting event.

The stunning success of the 1982 Festival helped turn Indianapolis into the U.S. capital of amateur and Olympic sports and host city for the 1987 Pan American Games--the first big international event ever to hit Indy.

An equal success in 1986 helped Houstonians regain some pride in a city battered by the oil bust. The 1994 Festival helped St. Louis take its mind off the floods that devastated the area a year earlier.

Oklahoma City treated the 1989 Festival as if it were the Olympics. San Antonio reacted the same way in 1993, putting itself in position to be named host of a future Pan Am Games.

And then there were the Festivals' sporting highlights, such as these (and many more):

-The nucleus of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" hockey team was chosen at the 1979 Festival.

-Calvin Smith and Evelyn Ashford set world records for the 100 meters within 15 minutes of each other at the 1983 Festival.

-Jackie Joyner-Kersee broke her own world record in the heptathlon at the 1986 Festival.

-Diver Greg Louganis won his 11th and 12th Festival gold medals in 1987.

-U.S. figure skating stars Nicole Bobek and Michelle Kwan each dazzled a big crowd for the first time in a Festival, Bobek in 1990, Kwan in 1993. Kwan, in fact, won before what is believed to be the largest live audience (25,691) ever to watch a figure skating competition.

-Marcelino Monasterial, a 71-year-old disabled tennis player in 1994, won a gold medal while becoming the oldest competitor in Festival history.

Athletes at the 1995 Festival in Colorado have begun circulating petitions to keep the event alive. Changing times will make that more and more difficult.

The Festival began as a U.S. equivalent to the communist Spartakiade, held on a quadrennial basis by the former Soviet Union and its former satellite in East Germany. As the competitive position of U.S. athletes in the Olympics slipped relative to that of the Soviets and East Germans, it was felt the U.S. needed some kind of multi-sports event to simulate the Olympic experience.

The difference was the Festival took place annually and, as years passed, it became more of a development meet than an elite athlete preparation event. Over the years, swimming, gymnastics and figure skating, among others, came to use the Festival for their junior athletes.

Without the power, the communist governments had to lower the hammer (and sickel) on those federations which did not send their stars to the Festival. The USOC could not guarantee marquee names to host cities that needed such attractions to lure sponsors and sell tickets. That became more of an issue when the Festival was in major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles (1991) or Denver (1995).

Maybe the Olympic Festival will be better off as a quadrennial event, becoming more valuable by its relative rarity. Maybe the 1999 event will be the last. Whatever happens, it will have lived up to its name as a truly festive part of U.S. Olympic history.